Our little seedlings

I just don't know when to stop. Even after I wrote and hit 'publish' on my last blog post; I felt compelled to go outside and take photographs, put a load of washing on and make compote. Then in the afternoon I wrote rough drafts for the next 6 posts, and got some photos edited for them..... then 'had to read' yet ready for yoga and so......collapsed.

To be honest the rest of the day was a mystery, though I did love Forrest Gump being on. Today I have barely moved from the sofa - yay I got up out of bed though!! - and have 'just read' all day. Though my mind has been muddled and confused and I seriously look like a mad lady!

Why do I strive so vehemently when I'm obviously so ill?

Sorry. I needed to get that out, say it openly and publicly. Listen to your precious bodies and minds my friends.

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** The Gault nursery as it stood yesterday..

 Andrew's homemade cold frame - housing geraniums and broad beans at the moment

 Roses - Reine de Violettes and  Silver Jubilee
 Two Beetroot types (Chiogga) and  (Golden) Celeriac, Purple Sprouting Broccoli

 On the window sill - Sunflowers (this is 2 weeks after planting!), Zinna (Jazz)
 Tiny Rudbecki (dwarf mix), our clever light reflector ;)

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** The back garden in happy vignettes....

So much green and happy growth!

Hugs and love
Your Carrie

P.S. Almost all my Dahlias are sprouting now :) 'Golden Wonder', 'Bora Bora' and 'Pom Pom'

(pt2) Three day weekend - Thanks St. Patrick

Sunday 16th March ~

We've never done any of the twee and commercialised stuff to do with the St. Patrick's holiday and with an allotment now, we always have our own plans. Belfast has a crazy big St. Patrick's Day parade on today but, no thanks, it isn't even the big day. It amazes me how everyone else around the globe seems to make such a big deal of it, green everywhere (St. Patrick's colour is blue), four leaf clovers (lucky in Irish but he is identified by the three leafed, normal clover) etc. Plus where did this need, this urgent need to get drunk come from? Is it a diss on what it means to be Irish??

Ahh, sure.

We had FIRE! There was a lot of deeply rotten, moldy and diseased wood around our two plots, coming on 6 years that is bound to be the case. We really didn't want it near to the precious soil and new life we were cultivating. (Fear not, there are still piles of wood and slates etc for bugs, but this stuff was bad.) It needed to be eradicated and though it lots like a huge angry fire, that's just due to close ups and there wasn't any wind and Andrew was by it at all times and what I am trying to say is - this was needed and we were safe about it. It was also beautiful :) The middle picture shows all the dead stalks from the Jerusalem Artichokes too, so great too tidy that area up and it really bolstered the fire. (I contributed them)

Along with this going on, I was on 14b and having a very emotional reaction to the cherry tree bed. That's not a sentence I ever thought I would write, haha. Maybe it was due to the horrendous low I went into late on Saturday night, maybe it was because the cherry blossom is my moniker, but this bed needed my full attention and love.

Written in shed, in notebook ~ 'I can't quite explain it, it was therapy, there were too many emotions. But I suppose, chiefly amongst them was the need to get rid of that crap; clearing out, destroying it - it did something similar for my soul. I didn't want to give up'.

I have a sense that turning this mess around and making something productive and beautiful with it will do me no end of good. It's going to be an 'easy maintence' half plot with fruit trees, bushes, rhubarb and asparagus in it - things that like to be left alone. Plus it is where my cut flower border is going to be and I am serious about this time, really good dahlias, roses, echinacea, sunflowers, poppies etc, flowers that make my heart sing and will brighten the home too.

Just a little example of what I was talking about in the last post - getting those blasted weeds out by the root and all :) Squeeee - it makes me happy.

This is more the thing that gets Andrew to squeeee inside. A man's well rotten horse manure and compost bins are his Kingdom! Haha - Though, honestly this stuff has been fantastic and not a single whiff of anything nasty :) Is it wrong to love horse poo and kitchen scraps so much??

So this was the state of things at the end of day 2 around our plots

Maggie in a 'I've got a bit of biscuit suck in my cheek' pose ~ 14b coming on nicely, check out the path :) ~ dead gnomes

Plus we decided to take a dander before leaving - there wasn't anyone else there, we had the place to ourselves again! The council has put in a bridge and path to connect the local community to it's community centre, just above our plots. The path isn't great but the bridge is fab - cool idea!

The Conservation Volunteers know how to lay a hedge ~ catkins ~ hubby xxx ~ pretty flowers on a bush planted in the hedgerow ~ daffs in the hedgerow ~ me ~ the new bridge

And so endth the second day of the long weekend's gossip
love and hugs

Feeling sorry for myself

I haven't blogged in days, I haven't read many friend's blogs in days; I haven't been one bit interested. I'm going through (and as I think about it, I must be doing better if I'm writing today) a really rough patch again. Panic attacks and severe depression are eating away at me like a cancer. I feel heavy and confused in my head, my back and shoulders ache from the stress, my blood pressure is all over the place and I can't eat. Even my arms and legs feel heavy and my fingers are not typing the way they should. Who ever invented the delete button should have been made monarch of the world. I just wish there was a delete button in the real world.

Sorry to moan, I'm just feeling so awful. Photos of our 4 hour blitz at the lottie have been uploaded as I write and there are a couple of stories to tell. My words just won't form either in my head or straight from the finger tips like usual.

Instead I leave you for today with a befittingly sad photo. This poor sunflower had been blown over and the stem torn by the storms of last week. I cut the flower head off and went to take some pictures, it began to rain and then I noticed the damn slug there, just waiting to finish her off. It just encapsulates how I feel today, down, down and down, the world conspiring against me. It's dark in this place and the ropes lowered down by my few dear friends aren't long enough for me to reach.

Reality hits me like a smack on the face ~ UPDATED

I feel terrible. This isn't the Samaritans website I know. I just want to talk to someone, anyone. I have so much pent up energy and so many ideas that I don't know where to begin and I feel like I may just explode instead. I realised on Holiday that I love taking photographs; I'm happy when see that I have captured a moment that I thought was beautiful and I can look at it whenever I want and share it with people. I love creativity and feel close to other arty people, potters, woodworkers, writers etc.

I just can't get over this mental block. Writing is so difficult and I want to scream because it is my usual release in life. I have stories from a really hard working weekend with Andrew at the plots. I am so proud of what we achieved but the stories won't form and everything is disjointed.

Yesterday Carrots and Kids wrote a beautiful bloggette, giving her thanks to a sunflower for just growing and giving her joy. I encourage you to read it. May Dreams Gardens is having her monthly Blooms day today and it is a delight as ever. I need to quiet my mind or I am afraid I may hurt myself, I've already started biting my hand (what's that all about?). I leave you with my some of my flower pics.

I hope you like them and just appreciate a moment looking at perfection. I'm hoping I will get some solace out of sitting here and looking at them myself. I'm just a ball at the moment, shaking and full of misplaced anger. I need ecotherapy or maybe just knocked out and allowed to sleep. x






It's all red and yellow in my border!


P.S. Spoke to Andrew and he is coming home a little early if he can. I'll hopefully get to the lottie and hopefully feel a bit better.

*UPDATE*
Andrew arrived home early. I had taken sedatives and was so sleepy so after a coffee and sugary biccie we hit the Lottie. I worked so hard and I felt good!! Can you believe it ~ ECOTHERPAY ROCKS. I really enjoyed the few hours there and was protective of my areas of work, I wanted to really see my progress. I didn't take the camera but trust me I was/am knackered now and happier. With more self-esteem I'm off to work on my photos xx

Potatoes, Beans and Peas

Oh last night was utterly stinking on the lotties - the weather has just been rotten and we're on the final countdown to the outdoor Family Fun Day; it's on Saturday! Eeek. Things have to clear up or else we need to find a 4-field sized marque. At least the roads have improved look at this >

So although working for a rather short, damp time, I managed to tie in all the billowing Raspberry canes and harvest lots of runner beans. The runners are going very well again this year despite the weather. We love these 'Enorma' ones, they live up to the name and they taste excellent. We're going to have a glut soon as this year they are all pretty much at the same growing point and the yield is high on this variety. I cut a good few which we'll eat tonight, the one on the far right is 38cm long, and that isn't the longest we've had.

Although the weather has been bad we have done well so far, bar the fact that the wind has knocked down a good few of my precious sunflowers (no photos of that, just to upsetting, it may even give you nightmares!). I've finished lifting the peas ('Greenhusrt longshaft?', 'Longshaft Greenhurst?' or something completely different; we grew 2 types and head-like-a-sieve-girl here can't remember) now and just have the remaining bagful in the fridge. We have mangetout coming now and boy are they sweet and tasty and more broad bean seedlings and borlotti beans coming along. That's just the start of it! There's also French Dwarf beans and green beans; legumes rule!

We've had some fabulous dinners too. Simple food but done right. The 'Maris Piper' bed had to lifted due to blight starting to get into the tubers, so we'd had lots of lovely spuds. Plus we've also been slowly chomping at the 'Maris Peers' and have some 'Duke of York' for tonight. I took this potato/tomato picture last week, growing on one of the Maris Peer plants. Of course I knew these things existed but I'd never seen it before - nature is marvelous.

So here's a little taster of what we've been eating. A simple dinner, yes but as I said, done right. These are little individual layered pies with our own courgettes (doing very well this year, growing in an old chicken manure pellet bucket!) sliced and seasoned with herbs and white wine vinegar on the bottom, and mixture of thoroughly roughed up boiled potatoes and peas (our own again) and a little cheese sprinkled on top before a light grilling. So good! On my goodness. Andrew (as usual) finished before me and then proceeded to stare at my bowl until I'd finished. Like Maggie I think he was hoping for a little leftovers ~ no such luck!

A 'harvest hat' for a change, I forgot my basket

So, yes, once the raspberry canes were dealt with and the runner beans harvested and photos taken I had to run back to the car. Taking my Strawberry and Mango fruit tea with me. I sat there whilst Andrew had some committee stuff to attend to. It was cold and raining and blowy - this is August. Look at it!! And it just got worse!

Sun is shining, the weather is sweet...

Makes you wanna cry cause you got HAY FEVER!
(sorry Mr Marley)

Why, oh why does she do it to me, what did I do in another life to annoy Mother Nature so very much? Yesterday was foul, it rained constantly and there was a tension in the air that only thunder could of cleared but it never happened. Then today, it is glorious but I have awful Hay fever, a throat so sore I can barely talk (so frustrating!!!!) and the yucky head cold that my darling Hubby thought would be nice to share (only mine is worse). Oh, she must be a bi-polar depressive, the ups and downs are wildly far apart.

Anyway, I shall fight on through the haze of snot and blurred, watery eyes so I can tell you about our great day on Sunday at 14b ~ our newborn plot. We've done so much talking and planning about this area that now there is no stopping us (well apart from your woman in the sky who is playing havoc with our weather!) and we've cracked on a pace. It's not that we want to have it all completed and finished as soon as possible, merely, we couldn't bare to see it empty and unproductive. Actually I think we'll slow down a little now and enjoy what we have, there's plenty to get sown and loads to look after as it is.

So here is the baby a few weeks ago. Ah, remember how proud we were to have adopted her? And this is her as of the Weekend, quite impressive, no? Please say it is my back is killing me with all the work I've done and Andrew and I both are exhausted and covered in little cuts and scratches. Thank goodness for First Aid kits, haha.

So the 2 types of Spud are poking there little green heads through, I particularly like the 'Maris Peer's' tinge of purple in the leaves. We have Squashes planted under a white fleece, nothing as of yet planted in the middle bed and my glorious flower bed is now all edged and planted up with a good few favourites, though I reckon this time next year it will be full to the gills (rather like my sinuses!) with plants and bulbs.

So in there (tip to the back) I have an Elecampane at the front for the butterflies, 2 Something else (I can't remember and can't ring Andrew cause I have NO voice, arrggghh) , 3 Geum 'Cooky', an obelisk for some more Sweet Pea 'Cupani' a ribbon of Anemone corms just planted, 5 Sunflowers ' ' my favourite Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff' (I want 'Bishops' Children' as well - uummmm isn't he supposed to be celibate?!) and then a hotch potch of Sunflower 'Velvet Queen' at the back. There are other things I'll cut and divide from our back garden too. I swear it will be packed! But this is almost it for now, apart from a load of Poppies that Mary gave me, nice!!!

Oh my nose is driving me mad; I'm off before I kill someone! (Which would be hard as it's only me in the house and I'm a fervent Pacifist as well - can you begin to understand my frustration??! Who has Hay fever and a bad cold at the same time??!!! I'd scream a little, if I had my voice.

Oh, and it's been very sunny, sunny, hail stoning and now good solid raining all in the period I wrote this!

Update , after 5 mins - it's hailing again, hard

So, yeah, we did actually do some work last week!

What with feeling poorly and all I haven't really been keeping up to date with the actual Allotmenteering that's been going on, rather I've been moaning and what not instead ~ not good.
So, here's a catch up. I'm going to start with what I think is the most exciting thing, my Sunflower hedge!!! I planted it up on Saturday and boy am I looking forward to seeing it all grown up. Andrew has done the unthinkable and taken my flower seeds out of my Lottie bag, so I can't tell you the variety of these ones, but they're smaller than usual and multi-stemmed in a gorgeous red colour. I really hope they grow well.

I fact I love this idea so much that I'm going to plant loads of Sunflowers on the new half plot 14b this weekend, just putting the seeds straight into the ground. These ones will be the extra tall ones that tower at 180cm (I'm 158cm on a good day) and have one BIG flower each. I'll do another hedge type arrangement and maybe throw some in randomly elsewhere - we can't get the whole plot cultivated this summer! So I'm going mad with flowers, hehehe.

As for 14b I started to dig over the flower bed and level out the start of the path. Boy was it hard work but I wanted to do it right. Double digging and riddling away and then I did the silly heel dance over the path area to try and get it smoother. At some stage we'll put big paving stones down and I think plant low growing alpines around them. It's all just at the planning stage at the moment.

I finally got that Elecampane in the ground, it's so healthy Rosie!! (But the purple poppies...they didn't make it.) And during the week I put an old obelisk in beside it to grow more 'Cupani' Sweet Peas up. The weather is supposed to be stinky tomorrow so armed with ideas from James' book I'm off to the nursery to see what else I can get. I'd like the bed (which will be quite big) to be all purples, reds and pinks. I never buy myself flowers for the house so I'd like to have my own cut flowers to brighten my living room. There will of course be lots of yellows and oranges on the plot too from companion plants. It's nice thinking about all this.

Lastly I planted my 'cheeky' self -seeded Nasturtiums out in by the trees in the fruit arch. 4 of them, hehehe, Andrew can't get away from them. He's going to read this but heck - I have 2 more and I'm letting them live as well!!!

So that was some of my work. Andrew did work hard too but are you really interested in him??? Oh, you are, okay.....

My dearest one planted out our Runner Beans 'Enorma' and our French Beans 'Cobra'. Each plant at the base of a wigwam support. I LOVE the French Bean one made out of recently cut down tree branches, very rustic and in my opinion more Allotment-y if that makes sense. I like ram shackle, which reminds me, Andrew also planted out our Borlotto Beans by the rusting gates and climbing rose. Fingers crossed it should look very pretty and hopefully be very productive. These are the Beans we got free from the Council when we renewed our tenancy *.

He also started our wind break fence but I'll leave that for another time when he's finished and I can tell the whole story.

To finish, I just want to mention our new neighbours. As usual I can't remember names very well, but I think there is a Katie and possibly a Don in the family? They also have the cutest puppy - Arnold, a baby Mini Schnauzer like Maggie, oh how I wanted to take him home!

Can you tell I've had caffeine this evening???? I don't usually drink it as I get a little hyper, hence this LONG bloggette, hehehe.

Rosemary's babies

I have to tell you about my Selkie/Rosemary. She's from 'down south' (ie. Ireland as opposed to Northern Ireland) and has only been a friend for a short while through the ever excellent GrowVeg.Info forum. Recently she posted me some off cuts (or 'divisions' is probably the right word of her favourite plants, great for attracting bees and butterflies to the Lottie. I wrote about it here.

Well look at them now! Unfortunately we lost one of the Poppies, we did all we could but we just couldn't save him....and the other one is in ICU, you may wish to prepare yourselves for the worst.....But everything else is so healthy and bursting to get planted. I LOVE the leaves on this Elecampane and every time we're at A24a I go off for a moment alone with it and give them a little rub ~ so soft.

Well more than all that! Today I received a Hug in an envelope (that is literally what it said on the card, hehe) with a lovely letter from Rosemary and more of my very favourite colour of Sunflower, the red-bronze ones. I have a different variety (same gorgeous red colour) upstairs growing away in their pots on the window sill, but now I really can have that sunflower hedge I talked about!

The weirdest sensation came over me when I got that letter out of the blue; I felt loved and calm and was able to sleep for 3 hours right there on the sofa. A big deal when sleep has been taking a holiday from my brain recently. A huge big hug to my friend Rosemary, makes you think ~ what could you do to make someone feel special this weekend?

Random Harvest (I LOVE that film)

This isn't about the film though, it is about the glorious harvest our wee plot gave us as a welcome home present. Here is the now standard harvest photo, but wait til you get the full run down of what's in there...

2 Pak Choi, 4 baby Lettuces, 3 Parsnips, 1 Leek, a massive handful of Parsley and 4 gorgeous wee Turnips. I was very happy, let me tell you.

The Pak Choi was used in stir fries (I was heard to proclaim "It's like real Pak Choi" - what an eejit) the Lettuces were eaten by me with a little cranberry sauce (more about that later) and last night Andrew made the best dinner ever with the rest and some couscous (which we'd grow ourselves if we could darn it!). He simply roasted the parsnips, leek and turnips and mixed it all up with couscous and lots of lovely flat leaved parsley. The only other ingredients were Ras el Hanout (Moroccan spice mixture) and a little salt and olive oil - Heaven!

So to the lettuces. They are growing away beautifully under one of our little mini polytunnels and are so tasty, especially lifted young like this. I am genuinely surprised at how well these little tunnels are doing, they were a good buy alright and to think, I almost doubted their necessity (apologises Andrew!).

Yes, the cranberry sauce and lettuce mixture. This comes from the 1st meal I had when we arrived in Krakow, I was so impressed by this dish I wrote it down in a notebook whilst eating it (never done that before). It had a Lettuce mix of course but added to that was grilled chicken strips, cashew nuts, Sunflower shoots (!) Basil mousse, a few perfectly ripe cherry tomatoes and Cranberry sauce. My socks were blown off - simple but my my so tasty. (If you've never had Sunflower shoots before - they taste a little like firm/ripe melon, beautiful.) Poor me I had hardly any of those ingredients but I made do.

We aren't the only ones to be enjoying the success of their lettuce. These ones are so cute in their little rows; they were planted in between corn until recently. I don't know the names of this lovely couple but they gave us a very big handful of said baby sweetcorn a few weeks ago and it was gorgeous - green fingers on that plot alright.

They aren't 'real' polytunnels but Andrew brought home some used Water Cooler Butts from work and cut their bums off. They have been very effectively used as cloches for 2 of our Parsley plants. Look how this plant was trying to escape (that's before I chopped it down for dinner, hehe), goes to show you don't have to pay for purpose made stuff, eh?

Lastly, for today, I'd like to mention our Leeks and how we've been blanching them with bits of drainpipe. It was found way back in the spring in a little stream along with lots of other dumped household stuff and we thought it might come in handy - we were right. I have an intolerance to 'real' onions but can eat leek, so it's an important crop for us. Using the collars around the young plants makes them grow up to have a longer, thicker white bottom half, where most of the flavour is. Gosh, I'm full of tips today! (This pic doesn't show our best ones but it gives a good idea).

Composting - we LOVE it

Sunday saw the completion of the trinity of compost bins on our plot! We brought round the 3rd one from the back garden, which hadn't been used since we got the lottie anyway.

We visited Mamma G before we started to fill up this one. There is a very large, huge tree in her back garden which drops a tonne of leaves every autumn. This is the last year of its life - it's really not well at all any more and the wall beside it is falling down too. I got to gather up the fallen leaves and was enjoying doing it, but the excitement went up a major notch when i was presented with the leaf sucker-upper/shredder machine! I love boys toys so much. I gathered up 2 big black bags of shredded leaves for the plot.

Back at the lottie, Andrew got straight to work - he was rather excited, how cute. He had lots of leaves, garden/kitchen waste, cow poo and that bag of shredded paper. Remember the last time I spoke about 'Grow Our Own' compost? - well it was the same idea. Layers of each material were put on top of one another in a vast sponge cake type fashion. Leaves - g/k waste -paper -cow-poo, and repeat until bin is full. Eh Viola! another bin of (soon-to-be) Black Gold.

While Andrew finished that up I took more pictures - this is my favourite one and one of the main reasons why I'd like lots of sunflowers next year. The birds obviously love this!

By the way - you know this - now's a great time to look after our little bug and birdie friends. Nuts and seeds for the birds (just think of poor, starving Robin Red Breasts) and hidey-holes for ladybirds etc - piles of bamboo canes and old logs etc are the way to go.